Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a display device, and more particularly, to a display panel which is capable of preventing a substrate from being directly exposed to the external environment, and also preventing a light leakage, and to a display device including the display panel.
Discussion of the Related Art
Various display devices, which substitute for CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes) manufactured in an early stage of display device, have been researched and studied, and examples of such display devices may be liquid crystal display device, plasma display panel, organic light emitting display device, etc.
These display devices are able to achieve a large size by decreasing their weight and volume. Also, these display devices have been highly developed in various aspects such as response speed and picture quality through the continuous study. In addition to the research and development in technical aspects, design aspects of a product that can appeal to consumers have been actively researched and studied. For example, efforts to minimize the thickness of the display device have been made, and a design enabling the good exterior appearance has been developed to expedite purchase of consumers by appealing to the aesthetic sense of the consumers.
However, the related art display device obtained up to now has limitations in the minimization of thickness and the improvement of exterior appearance due to its structural properties.
Meanwhile, the Unexamined Korean Patent Application Publication No P10-2012-0123767 published by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (hereinafter, referred to as “background document”), proposed by the applicant for this patent application, is directed to a display device including a display panel whose front and sides are exposed to the external environment, wherein an upper case and a front set cover are removed so as to minimize the thickness of the display device and to realize a good appearance of the display device.
FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view illustrating a display panel of the display device which may result when the display panel proposed in the background document is manufactured.
Referring to FIG. 1, the display panel of the display device proposed in the background document may include a lower substrate 12, an upper substrate 14 confronting the lower substrate 12, a film member 16 attached to an upper surface of the upper substrate 14, and a panel protection member 20 provided at respective side faces of the lower and upper substrates 12 and 14 bonded to each other.
An inclination face (CF) (slanted corner edges), which is inclined at a predetermined angle by a chamfer process, is formed at the edges of the lower substrate 12 and upper substrate 14, that is, the respective sides of the lower substrate 12 and upper substrate 14.
An end of each side of the film member 16 is provided at a predetermined distance (D) from the inclination face (CF) of the upper substrate 12.
The panel protection member 20 covers the edges of the lower substrate 12 and upper substrate 14, to thereby prevent the display panel from being exposed to the external environment and thus being damaged.
The above display device of the background document, however, has the following disadvantages.
First, as mentioned above, the end of the film member 16 is provided at the predetermined distance (D) from the inclination face (CF) of the upper substrate 14, and an upper case is removed from the display device. Thus, in the front face view of the display panel, a portion between the end of the film member 16 and the inclination face (CF) of the upper substrate 14 might be linearly visible. That is, the portion marked with the distance D in FIG. 1 is exposed to the outside, which in turn can expose the upper substrate 14 to damages.
Also, when the panel protection member 20 is not provided at a uniform thickness enabling to fully cover each inclination face (CF) of the lower substrate 12, the upper substrate 14 and the film member 16, and is not formed in a straight-line shape in the front face view of the display panel, it is difficult to obtain a good appearance of the display device, and furthermore a light leakage might partially occur as shown in FIG. 1.
That is, a burr is formed in the inclination face (CF) provided at each side of the lower substrate 12 and upper substrate 14 by the chamfer process. In this case, if the inclination face (CF) is not perfectly and fully covered by the panel protection member 20, reflected light (RL) may be scattered and reflected on the inclination faces (CFs) by an internal reflection of the lower substrate 12, and then some of the scattered-reflected light (SRL), which is not blocked by a black matrix (BM) of the upper substrate 14, may be exposed to the outside through the inclination faces (CFs). Particularly, in case of the display device of the background document, the upper case is removed, so that the inclination faces (CFs) are exposed to the outside. Thus, as shown in FIG. 2, a light leakage may occur due to the scattered-reflected light (SRL) in the inclination faces (CFs) as shown by the leakage light (SRL) between the BM and the panel protection member 20.